About Stephanie D. Barnes

Phidippides was the first to ever run a marathon when he ran the 26.1 miles from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, Greece to tell of the Greek victory…then collapsed and died. He made history, but never got to celebrate his historic run. Today, many people around the world run marathons voluntarily, some multiple times, for the mere laurel of a finisher’s medal. Crazy, right??? I ran my first marathon in 2009. It was after several attempts…at training. I would always start training, but I would never finish and would abandon my plans to actually run the race. It would [...]

Beyoncé sprinkled boss magic all over the stage at her historic performance at Coachella and taught us all a lesson on how to really use a platform. Her nearly two-hour performance enthralled viewers as she schooled the world on black music and traditions—HBCU style. Not once, but twice!! She brought excellence during two different performances and outdid herself the second time around. She was so good that Coachella became Beychella! Her epic show was not just entertaining, but edutaining! Edutainment is the artful way of educating an audience in the guise of entertainment. As business leaders, it is important [...]

You know many times in business, we are focused on making money. Well, that’s the point, right? Yes! But it takes more than the latest technology and financial capital to be successful. In order to build your financial capital, you must also build your social capital. You don’t do business by yourself. You can’t do business with yourself. It takes other people to have a successful business. You need other people to buy your services and products. You need other people to refer you to other people who will buy your services and products. You need other people to [...]

I had the manic Mondays of all Manic Mondays recently! My son and I got off schedule and left the house 10 minutes late. Instead of navigating Atlanta traffic all calm and collected, I was now frazzled and unfocused. I am a host on the Black CEO Morning Show and had to dial in at 8 am! I usually dial-in, participate in the morning commentary for about 10 mins and then go on mute when it’s time to leave the house at 8:10. This gives me time to navigate the route for about 20 minutes until it’s time for me [...]

Anyone who has access to social media since February 25, 2017 has heard or heard of Remy Ma’s Epic Dis Track ShETHER. A lyrically brutal takedown of hip-hop rival, Nicki Minaj, ShETHER continues the tradition of MC battles and pays homage to another rap annihilation, Ether, the 2001 track released by Nas aimed at his rival, Jay Z. Even those who aren’t hip-hop fans are aware of this beef by now. As always, there are leadership lessons to be learned in the most unlikely of places. ShETHER is ripe for many lessons regarding women in leadership! As I have been [...]

At the end of October, I traveled to Wilmington, Delaware to present at the TEDx Women forum. It was both exhilarating and terrifying. I did not know whether or not I would be able to pull it off. Although I have spoken many times before—and to audiences larger than the one in Wilmington—this was the first time that I had to speak entirely from memory! Some days it is a challenge to remember why I walked into a room, let alone presenting a 15-minute speech from memory! But I was able to recall and deliver my talk without incident. I [...]

This is not a political post, but I cannot remain silent about the now infamous recording of Donald Trump proudly admitting to sexual assault against women. I have been shocked to hear his words described as mere “mean things” and his own characterization of the conversation as harmless “locker room talk.” It reminded me of Brock Turner’s father’s characterization of rape as “20 minutes of action.” I have been further saddened to see other women dismiss his words describing his actions as acceptable because they disagree with Hillary Clinton’s politics. Disliking one person does not equate to absolution of another. Even [...]

Go Stephanie! It’s your birthday! Party like it’s your birthday! Today is my birthday! I am blessed to celebrate another year of fabulous. 2016 has been extraordinary in a spectacular way. It was a great year of polarities. I experienced great highs and great lows. But even at the lowest point, this year was fabulous. It was fabulous because I learned to embrace the power of the freedom of submission. To say that I am a woman with a plan is an understatement. For as far as I can remember, I have always had a plan for [...]

Alarm clocks have to be one of the greatest annoyances known to man! I HATE my alarm clock! It is the bane of my existence. Well, not really, but I do really hate it! I LOVE my snooze button! I am quite the talented snoozer. I can snooze with my eyes closed. Pun intended. Seriously, I take snoozing to another level. Sometimes, I don’t even remember hitting the snooze button 50 million times. My snoozapaloozas have been known to last for 1 hour and twenty minutes. That’s also the amount of time that my clock gets tired of snoozing and I [...]

The popular saying, You Can’t Teach and Old Dog New Tricks” is often used as an excuse for staying stuck!!! This popular saying is attributed to the philosophy that it is “impossible” to get people to change their habits or acquire new skills. Puppies tend to be malleable, teachable and eager to learn. Older dogs become less apt to be able to be trained. But we are not dogs. We are highly functioning organisms equipped with the power of choice. The octogenarian who refuses to switch from reading the morning newspaper for decades to the online edition is not incapable [...]